December 07, 2015

Coke pulls racist hipster ad

By Jonathan WheelhouseThe Coca-Cola Company has a issued an apology for its new Christmas video showing young, jubilant white hipsters distributing Coke bottles to a community of indigenous peoples in Mexico.

The video opens with shots of sullen indigenous peoples, young hipsters happily quaffing Coke, and statistics, specifically that 81.6-percent of the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca, Mexico, feel marginalized because they don't speak Spanish.

Coke has since pulled the video from its YouTube channel, though it is still available online.

"Our intention was never to be insensitive to or underestimate any indigenous group," Coke said in a statement, Latino USA reported. "We have now removed the video and apologize to anyone who may have been offended."

Or as one tweeter put it:

Comment: The stereotype here is that poor Natives want and need the help of white folks. It's a variation of the age-old belief that Natives are children who can't take care of themselves.